5.7 Ray-Tracing Interface



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5.7 Ray-Tracing Interface

 

VISTA's visualization toolkit provides a quasi-standard interface to ray-tracing packages using the Neutral File Format (NFF). Several geometrical primitives are defined by the NFF, but only the so-called ``patch surface'' primitive is required. Although ray-tracing quasi three-dimensional surfaces may appear slightly unscientific at the first glance, the specular surface model often unveils details (e.g., curvature, noise, or very small gradients) that can hardly be discovered with ``conventional'' shading techniques. The method has also the potential of simply overlaying additional information using texture and optical parameters.


Martin Stiftinger
Thu Oct 13 13:51:43 MET 1994